Disappearing Act

S03E15

The GREY'S ANATOMY EVENT day starts off with everyone kind of moping and/or on edge for various personal reasons, and the only ones who seem to be happy are George, who is loving marriage, and Cristina, who is excited to tell Meredith her news. She never gets a chance, though, since Mere is busy being upset, and then Bailey and the interns minus Cristina are sent into the field to the mass casualty incident. That turns out to be a ferry (boat) accident and the scene is chaos. They immediately spread out and each get their own patients -- George finds a woman with a gaping wound looking for her son and convinces her he'll find the boy if she'll just get treatment; Izzie goes down below to help a man crushed under a car, whose friends don't do much more than yell at her to help him without actually doing anything useful; Alex lifts a concrete pylon off of a pregnant woman; and Meredith finds a lost little girl who is silent and completely unemotional and would be better placed creeping people out a horror movie, and who won't leave her side. Nothing much gets solved in the hour, as it ends with everyone's patients either going into surgery or still pinned beneath vehicles. The biggest question, however, is what's going to happen to Meredith. While treating a patient, she falls off the dock and into the ocean, and only creepy silent girl saw her fall, and seems fairly unconcerned about it. I certainly hope Mere can hold her breath longer than she could last week in toxic blood girl's operating room, because it looks like it's going to be a while before anyone realizes she's gone.

Previously on Grey's Anatomy, Burke and Cristina got engaged, George and Callie got married, Richard and Adele are getting a divorce, Alex claims to not be interested in Addison, and Meredith had the worst mother in the world, who used her few moments of lucidity to berate everything about her daughter.

Mere sits in her gorgeous claw-foot bathtub, contemplating this week's narration. "Disappearances happen in science. Disease can suddenly fade away. Tumors go missing. We open someone up to discover the cancer is..." (At this point my DVR decided to skip a moment and make a pleasing sound like a record scratch that sent the cats running underneath the bed, but I'm going to assume the word I missed is "gone.") "It's unexplained, it's rare, but it happens. We call it misdiagnosis. Say we never saw it in the first place. Any explanation but the truth. That life is full of vanishing acts." With that, she pulls her own, sliding completely under the water. "If something that we didn't know we had disappears, do we miss it?" If an intern drowns herself in the tub, will we notice? She stares up through the water at the ceiling, and then Derek walks in, staring at the tub. He calls her name and gets no response, and the shot changes again to Meredith's point of view as he leans over and sees her, then grabs her arms and pulls her up. She looks stunned, and he asks what exactly she was doing.

The camera pans around George's empty room and stripped bed. Izzie's hanging out, leaning against the doorway with a coffee cup and staring sadly at the room. Mere and Derek come arguing down the hallway, she insisting she was just taking a bath (and maybe doing some breath-holding exercises in case another patient with toxic blood is admitted? Come on, Mere, you can think up a better excuse than that) while he argues it wasn't just a bath. He mentions her mother, and she cuts him off, but he forges ahead, pointing out that her mom was awake and said some awful things and is now gone again. Meredith tries to insist everything is back to normal, but it's quite obvious that she's a gigantic mess. Derek mentions that Ellis' heart surgery is that day. He puts his hands on her face and asks sweetly if he should ask the chief to give her the day off. I guess they have triage training that day, but he could probably get her out of it. Hmm, triage. We haven't seen them have to really put that system to use yet, I wonder if that might be pertinent down the line sometime. Meredith is aggravated, and instead of thanking him, she insists she doesn't' need rescuing, while he begs to differ. She asserts, "I'm a surgeon. I do the rescuing. You are not my knight in shining... whatever." She continues to pick a fight with him, but he seems to have recovered from the dressing-down Ellis gave him the day before and insists he's not going anywhere. "This is the happ[il]y ever after part. And in the happ[il]y ever after part, the guy is there all the time, saying things. And the girls love it." Instead of pausing to consider that once again, he's proving he's going to stick around through her very many different moods, she sends him to work. He leaves but insists, "Just for the record, I am your knight in shining whatever." Her knight in shiny, McDreamy flowing locks.

By Lauren S

Once he's out the door, Meredith asserts to Izzie that she didn't try to drown herself. Izzie just tells her, "Hey, I ate everything out of the fridge last night. Everything. Including a tub of butter. There's no judgment here." I guess every so often she has to eat everything instead of baking to clear out room again in the kitchen. Meredith asks, her if she ever feels like she's disappearing, and Izzie sadly tells her, "All the time." It turns out Meredith is struggling with being happy, probably because she's dealing with a mother with a horrifying disease who just laid into her for being a complete disappointment. "Why can't I just be that happily ever after person? Why can't I believe in that?" Probably because you've been living your entire life in the shadow of someone who seems to not really actually love you at all, and it takes a little bit of time to realize that not everyone is going to be that harsh. But that's just my bachelor's degree in psychology assessment. Izzie just replies wistfully that she's not sure what she believes in any more. Not the easiest year for these two ladies, that's for sure.

There's an establishing shot of a ferry. I'm not sure if you're aware of this, since he doesn't mention it a lot, but Derek has a thing for ferryboats, as well as for Meredith, who is really his personal little ferryboat. It's been extremely subtle, so I just wanted to make sure to give you a chance to ponder the metaphor.

Cristina and Burke get to the hospital, and though their body language radiates how happy they are, she insists they aren't telling anybody. It's obvious he's a little bit annoyed but she points out she needs to tell her friends first. He defends himself as having friends to, which he amends to "Derek" after a Look from Cristina. She freaks out that she has to tell Meredith first so that it's not a "thing." He's a bit hurt and accuses her of treating it like a disaster, to which I say he clearly doesn't understand women and friendships at all. For all her hesitation and thinking about getting married, this has nothing to do with that and everything to do with the fact that women need to tell their friends personally and before anyone else knows that they're engaged. It comes in the handbook bestowed to us by fairies on our sixteenth birthday. She takes his hands and tells him she'll tell them today, and he has to wait -- she's being really kind and seems really happy, which still continues to surprise me. Surprised in a good way, though.

By Lauren S

I'll warn you now, I can do NO JUSTICE to the scene. The Chief is in the elevator, sporting some newly dark hair. Addison is behind him, clearly trying valiantly to concentrate on her newspaper and not his head. Derek joins them and looks puzzled, asking what's different, and Addy quietly tells him to leave it be. Naturally, he puts his finger on it and asks Richard what's up with his hair, to which he claims nothing is up. On the floor, Mark and Burke join them and the staring starts anew and Burke asks the same question. Addy still tries to quietly call them off, but Mark boisterously notes that the chief dyed his hair, and Derek chimes in immediately to ask why. After he earns a whack with the newspaper, Burke echoes the question, and Richard admits, "Men who have grey hair are noticed less than men who don't." Derek's confused about who's doing the noticing and after an uncomfortable silence Burke realizes, "By the ladies?" Mark laughs, and Addy has had enough and pushes forward to stand in front of all of them. She's in FULL sexy librarian mode with big awesome hair and the glasses, which she rips off to admonish them. "He is alone, all alone. Do any of you know what that's like?" Here she directs at each of them individually. "Lives with Cristina, dates the perfect 12-year-old... MANWHORE." Individually, and spectacularly, spot-on. No one dares contradict her and she goes on, "His wife left him! After 25 years of marriage! So if the man wants to dye his hair for the ladies, let him dye his hair for the ladies." Derek mouths, "All right," and the air is now suitably uncomfortable for everyone, especially the Chief who wanted to just get down with his Grecian formula in peace.

At the Eight Million Dollar Clinic, there's much more activity than was seen the day before. Bailey rolls a cart and Callie follows behind holding whiteboards, and they seem to be setting something up. Callie's in her own world, as everyone in the hospital does so well, blathering on about how weird it is to work with her husband. She explains, "At work, I'm giving him orders. In bed, he's giving me... " but she's mercifully cut off by Bailey. She acknowledges their problems but tells Callie, "I'm asking you to remember this day is a marathon, and my mind can only hold what it needs to know. And your sex life cannot be held in my mind today... EVER! Your sex life cannot be held in my mind ever. Okay?" When Bailey tells you to keep the bedroom gymnastics to yourself, you listen, and Callie shuts up. It's just as well because while my love for George has come back the past few weeks, one mental image I never, ever want is of him acting powerful in the bedroom. I'd prefer if our relationship just stayed out of those waters.

By Lauren S

Everyone's favorite psychotically cheerful doctor, Sydney, bustles in, announcing her presence, which makes everyone cringe. She chirps on about how nice the clinic is but manages to start showing her passive-aggressive side when she mentions that it's a great way to get Bailey noticed for Chief Resident. Unbelievably, Bailey has no idea what she's talking about -- and I understand that she did this out of the goodness of her heart and for the sake of expanding future storylines, but I don't believe for a second that a fourth-year resident would not be aware of the competition for Chief Resident the year. But she apparently has no idea, and Syd explains that it will be the Resident who gets to lord over all the others year. As if Bailey doesn't have that role just naturally. Sydney gets a bit of an edge to her chirp and says she's on to Miranda, and actually growls (chrirpily) at her. Miranda counters, "I bite," and snaps her teeth, making Sydney jump. Thankfully, she leaves.

Mere has gotten to the hospital and stares at her mom sitting in the hospital bed. She turns and leaves when her mom's gaze shifts out the door to her daughter.

In the locker room, Cristina positively beams and looks around her locker door at Meredith. She stares a while, and when Mere realizes and snaps a "What?" at her, Christina hides behind the door and stammers that Meredith is cranky. She's not wrong; Mere might do well to read Cristina's happy body language, but then again, her mother pretty much figuratively died the day before, so she's got a lot on her plate. Alex complains about the triage training they're doing that day -- which I assume is what Bailey is setting up -- and how useless it is, and he'd rather be in surgery. I'm sure that's true and that nothing about triage at all will be coming up anytime soon. Izzie pops in, all fakely cheerful asking George what it's like to live in a hotel. She stammers out that if he gets tired of "the hotel," punctuated with an eye roll to prove we all know that she's talking about Callie, her best friend's new WIFE, that he's free to come home back to his old room. Thank god he's still got the balls that grew in last week, and he actually laughs in her face. "You think I'm this boy that you need to save. I get it, it... would be sweet if it weren't so condescending." It just remains to be seen if any of this ever penetrates her thick skull. Alex continues griping, and Cristina hopefully gives it another try, but when Meredith again snaps at her, Cristina's face falls and she tells her it's nothing.

Triage training. Izzie is holding a patient's wrist, giving the bullet and her recommended treatment. Bailey asks her if that's it, and after a moment trying to read Bailey's face to see if it's the right answer, Izzie says yes. Callie's holding a stopwatch and yells time, and none other than Sydney, playing the patient, sits up and announces that she's now dead, complete with a very dramatic, shaking, eye-rolling-back performance to illustrate just how dead. Turns out Izzie sent her hypothetical patient home too soon, and Hypo got septic and died. Ever professional, she rolls her eyes. Although honestly, if I had to spend more than 30 seconds with Sydney, I would be too, so I can't knock her for it this time. Bailey explains to them all that when it comes to triage, they have to be quick and thorough, and use their instincts. She calls Karev up to take his turn, and in a great throwaway moment, Sydney fluffs her hair. Could she be hoping for a ride on the Alex train? Bailey goes on some more about the importance of triage, which explains why they're just getting to their training now, months (we think) into their residencies. She also mentions that if somehow, maybe, they ever were to need to use this in a real life situation they'd have only minutes to take care of things. Callie jumps in to tell them they'll be tested on it later and there are some shenanigans with George not respecting her as much as she'd like as his boss. After she gives him a talking-to, the Chief walks in. There's an emergency situation, and he'll need to send a team out into the field. Oh, sweet unexpected heavens, this means they're probably going to have to put their triage knowledge to practical use!

Cristina asks if this is part of the exercise. "Are we supposed to act appropriately... tense?" She's good at tense, but it turns out she gets to try it for real since the Chief says it's an actual situation. He doesn't know where or what happened, just that they got orders to send doctors. They all put on big nifty jackets and gets bags of supplies ready. Cristina comes up to Meredith, tentatively telling her she has news, but Mere just asks if she's pregnant again. "'Cause I can't handle the extra months of bitchiness." Cristina begins to answer, but they're all hustled outside to the ambulance that will be their ride. Once there, it turns out there's only room for five, so Bailey tells Cristina to wait, even though Izzie was the one who was flippant. As she jumps into the vehicle, Meredith finally genuinely asks Cristina about her news, but it's not the time and they have to leave. Cristina is left, forlorn and alone, as they pull away. At this point the producers decided to grab some music video/soap opera, stylized slo-mo b-roll showing the ambulance dramatically driving the mean streets of Seattle.

By Lauren S

Inside the ambulance, they all look nervous. Bailey instructs them to put their ID on the outside of their jackets and reviews triage once again -- each patient is tagged with either green, yellow, or red. It's pretty self-explanatory, the reds need help immediately, and the greens can wait. They need to assess and move on, get critical patients to ambulances, and stay out of the way of Search and Rescue. They still don't know what kind of scene is awaiting them...

... which makes it all the more dramatic when they get out at the accident scene. They all stare, kind of stunned and trying to process what they're seeing, Izzie offering, "Holy mother of... " There are helicopters, paramedics, and then we see a giant CGI ferry crushed on one end. There's lots of smoke and fire and chaos. We're treated to a lot of admiring crisis shots, and then a long individual shot of each intern, mouths gaping at the damage.

After a commercial break, there's the same admiring shot of the ferry. They're really working to get their money's worth on this establishing scene. Izzie asks Bailey where she needs them, and once they pull her out of her own shock, she tells them she can't hold their hands, and to just go find where they could be needed. Music plays as they all scatter and get lost in the crowd. Each runs to a different patient, and George asks a fireman/cop/important guy what happened. He explains, "There was a fog bank. Container ship clipped the ferry." As if to illustrate just how horribly serious this is, he looks to the side and sees sheets covering bodies on the ground.

By Lauren S

Meredith is helping a woman when she hears crying, and she identifies it as coming from a young blonde girl in pigtails. She determines that she must be lost, but she only gathers this from head nods and blank stares, as the girl absolutely won't speak. She's wet her pants from fear and eventually grabs Meredith and hugs her. Meredith assures her it will be okay, even though she seems somewhat lost herself, and takes the girl by the hand. With the long blonde hair and the silence, she's a little Mini-Meredith.

Derek is back at the hospital, puzzling about how his beloved, trusty ferryboats could possibly get in an accident. "It doesn't make sense. Ferryboats don't get in accidents; they're safe. They're reliable. The moment you take one for granted, along comes a container ship, and boom." And yet, while he totally knows that he loves ferryboats because he loves Meredith, I feel like even he doesn't see that this might be a sign of a container ship in his own future. Burke just stares at him, so as a reminder, Derek adds. "I have a thing for ferryboats." He starts to walk away as Burke explains that he's postponing a valve replacement so the OR is available for victims. On first viewing, I thought he was talking about Ellis' surgery, but it's another one. However, I can only assume that hers will be postponed as well. Derek comes back to the desk and finally opens up without hiding behind the ferryboat metaphor, saying that something is wrong but that Meredith won't say what it is, and then caps that off by trying to drown herself in the tub. "It's like living with a ghost." Burke just looks confused as he observes that Derek is confiding in him, which Derek confirms. That's it, Burke goes for the gold and tells him he's engaged, and Derek very sincerely congratulates him. Burke explains that he wasn't supposed to say anything until Cristina told Meredith, and Derek just responds, as if teaching young grasshopper a lesson: "They're different than other women." Burke agrees, and Derek observes that they might never know them, but now Burke has some work to do since they're engaged. And of course, Mark waltzes up at that very moment and hears the news. He offers a very loud congratulations, but Burke decides to pretend it didn't happen and says the mass casualties will be pulling in soon. Derek adds to be prepared for burn victims. Burke... you're dead. Why does no one on television ever realize that telling one person means you actually tell everyone, to generally comic results, a fight, and then a sincere and touching make-up scene?

Down below in the ferry, cars are crushed on top of one another like fallen dominoes. Two guys are talking to their buddy, who is pinned by one vehicle on the hood of another. Burly Friend #1 assures him that he found a doctor and he's going to be fine. The guy just twitches and looks scared, as does Izzie.

Cristina stands in a waiting room at the hospital and watches a newscast from the accident site, where it's mentioned that the ferry could have been carrying between 1,000 and 1,500 passengers. Richard comes up behind her, telling her what to expect when patients arrive. As she leaves to prepare, he calls after her, and to her shock, he congratulates her on her engagement. She thanks him and he sends her off, reminding her, "We're hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst."

Back at the accident site there is a shot of helicopters taking off from a parking lot to the water, with the highway and the Seattle downtown buildings behind them. It's kind of eerie that when I look to my TV, I realize that the picture of me and my best friend, taken on vacation in Seattle, shows us with exactly the same skyline behind us. Small world. This time we're hanging with George, who's shouting some orders to transport a couple of people and that the others didn't make it. Upon hearing him say one of the bodies is a child, a banged-up woman begins to freak out. She's been separated from her 7-year-old son and is refusing to be treated until she can find him. George pleads with her and makes a deal, that if she goes to triage, he will find the boy. She's still freaking out, as George has his hand on what looks like something protruding from her abdomen. He takes a photo that she's been holding and helps her into a wheelchair.

Down below, Izzie is trying to help her own patient as Burly Friend #1 explains that he's a mechanic and the two drive to work together. He ran back down to try and help people and ended up getting trapped. Izzie shouts that he has chest and leg injuries in addition to a broken arm and reckons he's probably got pelvic and spine injuries too. Pretty much every item from the Injury Buffet, if you will. She says she can't do much until they get him out, and Burly Friend #1 just demands that she do what she can. She tells Burly Friend #2 to go find search and rescue, since their boy can't wait.

Derek's made it to the scene, and Meredith overhears him talking and approaches him, still holding Mini Mere's hand. She begins to help him and out of nowhere, he asks her if she wants to get married. She's bewildered by the question and assures him no, but asks if he does. Rather than answer, he just notes that's not It and wants to know what It is that's bugging her. She says nothing, taking Mini-Mere's lead. There's some awkward silence, and she asks if he's good so that she can go take care of Mini. He asks if the girl is okay and Meredith says that she is, "She's just lost." And please, Derek, watch out for falling anvils in addition to the rest of the horror out there on the water.

Addison is at the board, erasing all of the non-emergency surgeries that she postponed, explaining it all to the Chief. He was going to do that and she realizes that maybe she stepped on his toes, but he assures her it's okay. They make small talk about how quiet things are while they wait for the first wave of patients and then fall into their own awkward silence. Finally, she says, "I dyed my hair blonde. The day after Derek moved out. Change is good. Your marriage is over... you're starting over. So am I." She does a sexy shake of her gloriously red hair, and he nods at her and looks thoughtful rather than despondent and embarrassed for the first time this hour, and he points to his own hair. I take a moment to thank goodness that the move to Seattle must have made her go back to the awesomeness that is her red hair.

Burke and Cristina have a moment together, and he admits that he told Derek but tries to downplay it. She argues that it's a big deal since now it will be a Thing that Cristina didn't tell Meredith herself. Burke asks kind of aggressively why she didn't, and they get into an argument with him not accepting that she didn't have time. I've got to again go with Cristina on this one, though, as a girl who has a best friend and can imagine herself in this situation. Burke's going back to familiar dickish territory, and when she realizes she decides to just leave the room, saying the wounded will be coming in soon.

Alex is in the ambulance with his crush victim. I guess in the TV version of triage, rather than move on to another patient the doctor goes back with the person they were treating to the hospital. It's a good thing, though, for Jane Doe, a.k.a Crush, since Alex comes up with the idea to turn her on her side to help her poor circulation. The machines go from a frantic beeping to normal, and Alex stays at her side and talks her through the ride. He holds an oxygen mask to her face and she gazes up into his dreamy eyes.

The Chief waits alone outside, and is joined by Cristina. They are silent but tense, and she finally asks what they do. All they can do now is wait in eerie silence, and eventually they're joined by Callie and Addy. Both, I should note, have their hair down and big sexy earrings, which seems nothing if not totally practical for taking care of horrifically injured patients in just a few moments. Cristina is clearly not good at waiting, but the sirens are beginning to sound.

Meredith talks to Mini Mere about finding a grownup who can help find her mom when she notices a man in a suit climbing out of the water onto the dock, with a huge gash in his leg. She directs a nearby cop to take Mini Mere to triage, but he tries to push her off. Once she demands that he take her, she leans down to assure the girl she'll be okay, leaning forward to touch their foreheads to each other. It's a nice human touch. She tells a scared-looking Mini Mere that she'll be fine and runs to the man as the cop walks her away. She has her attention on her patient and doesn't notice that the cop gets called away, and instructs Mini Mere to wait right there a moment. In a flash, she disappears.

Derek finds Bailey at the scene and they talk about how bad things are. She then asks him if he's seen the interns. He's only seen Meredith and is surprised and sounds kind of worried that she didn't bring the girl to Bailey as she said she would ten minutes before. Bailey has to inexplicably leave in the ambulance with her patient, as did Alex, and tells Derek to keep an eye out for them; he promises to do his best.

The hospital now looks slammed with patients as Alex arrives with Crush. When the Chief asks him what their step should be, he pauses, staring Crush in her poor misshapen face, and Cristina takes the opportunity to jump in with recommended treatment. Alex continues to look worriedly at Crush, and behind him, Addy watches him with her own worried expression. Crush grabs his hand, which seems to be the only movement she can still make, and he tells her the baby is okay. Addison instructs him to cover her in radiology and warns that she's about to go through a lot. Webber gives the patient to Cristina and instructs Alex to head to the clinic where the family members are waiting. He's totally indignant, since he literally pulled her out of the rubble, and Chief says, "Which is heroic and manly, and you still need to talk to those families right now." He basically explains that they all need to help out, and Cristina can handle this patient. Crush's scared eyes watch him leave.

George is now at the hospital with his patient with the lost child, whose name is Carly. She's still describing her son, who loves police cars and fire engines. I guess that means he's lost in the right place at least. Bailey meets them and directs her to the OR, but she's still talking about her son. Bailey asks George what's going on, and Carly describes the deal they made, that he'll find Chris before Carly goes into surgery. Bailey tries to talk her into going into surgery now, but she's adamant that they find him first and seems to have utmost confidence that Wonder George can find him among the chaos before she loses all of her blood out the gaping wound in her stomach.

Ferry guy seems to have a remarkable hold on consciousness for someone crushed between two cars. His blood drips to the floor at the same time cadence as a clear liquid drips. I smell a fireball, folks. But they can't think about that now, Izzie has an IV in his arm and she's trying to bandage him as best she can. The guy is clearly in serious pain, and Burly Friend #1 is demanding she help him, but she's given him everything she's got. She still seems to be doing everything with a question mark at the end of it, like she's looking for someone's approval. She orders BF #1 to take the guy's hand, and when he questions her, she musters up some spine and yells, "You think he's in pain now, he's not. Hold his hand. Please." She walks herself through the steps, as BF#1 questions if she's really a doctor, and then grabs the guys arm and pulls. Screams fill the garage.

The man who crawled onto the dock is writhing and yelling in pain with a huge gash in his leg, displaying just about every layer of bone and muscle he's got. Blood is actually spurting from his leg like a water fountain. He's clearly in shock, saying he needs to make it to a meeting -- though I can't imagine bleeding all over the room would give the impression he wanted to make. She puts a bandage on his leg and squeezes, which causes him to scream and squirm, but the blood just seeps right through as if the gauze is tissue paper. At that moment, Mere feels a tap on her shoulder, and her tiny blonde shadow is behind her, staring and silent. This little girl would be so much better suited to a horror movie, she's so creepy. I wouldn't be surprised if her head started spinning on her shoulders. Meredith orders her immediately to turn around and not look, and after a moment of staring at the blood, she complies. Meredith urges her to be brave and to definitely not turn around and look.

Cristina is with Crush and begins her MRI. Burke joins her and says that he'll take over, and she should leave and check on his other patients. She's appalled, especially when it turns out she won't be scrubbing in on the surgery. Despite his telling her that he needs someone to oversee the cardiothorasic wing and making that, and then doing sutures in the pit, sound important, it reeks of condescension. For the condescending cherry, he asks her if she has a problem with that. Calmly, she says no and turns and leaves. See, just when they convince me they're happy and maybe growing as people and in their relationship, he pulls this stupid rank bullshit, and I want to punch him in the face.

George is on the phone, looking for Carly's son Chris. From his side of the conversation we learn that all of the families are being directed to Seattle Grace, which means he has to beg to get anyone at other hospitals to look for the boy. Callie comes by and he asks for her help, but she brushes him off completely, sure he's asking some question as a husband and not a co-worker. These two need to have a conversation that's not about who is wearing the pants between the sheets, and quick. He's exasperated and explains he has a patient who needs surgery, but she just counters that she does too and leaves. He watches after her and then gets back to the phone, where he seems to be having no luck finding the little boy.

Meredith is tying a tourniquet on the man's leg and clearly needs help. She calls out but no one is paying attention, both because they're busy and because she's off sort of in a solitary corner away from the other traumas. She finally tells Mini Meredith to turn around and that she needs her help. The girl just stares silently, not a single muscle moving on her face. Meredith tries to coerce her, finally gently telling her, "I don't talk either when I get scared. I don't talk when bad things happen. You don't have to say anything, but I need your help." Let's hope that admitting this to her creepy Mini-Me means she can say those words to Derek and they can continue on their quest for a mature relationship, though I'm not sure it's in the cards anytime soon. Mini Mere eventually turns and looks at Meredith's hands pressing onto the wound. Meredith instructs her to look in her face and not at the wound, and asks her to go to her box and find an instrument. She's clearly panicked at relying on an 8-year-old as a medical assistant, although sometimes I feel like it's not entirely unlike what she goes through with the other interns at work. She's trying to keep her cool as she waits.

Cristina is feverishly asking Alex about the "trauma bonanza" at the accident site. Alex is back in his black tank top -- let's hope this is going to become a permanent fixture for at least a moment each week -- and tells her not to talk. He's pissed that she stole Crush, but she asserts that it's his own damn fault that he hesitated. He counters that he was thinking, but she just informs him, "Well, again, not my problem that thinking is such a time-consuming process for you." He describes pulling her out of the water and getting the pylon off of her face, and Cristina is sick with jealousy that she missed the pylon-hauling good times. He's jealous right back at her, mad that he's going to talk to the families when she scrubs in. Imagine his delight when she admits she's not scrubbing in, but is going to be doing sutures in the pit. Nothing can brighten Alex's day like sweet retribution, and he wonders aloud who she pissed off. She tries to save face, defending, "I happen to be pulling gaping pieces of flesh back together." Unfortunately, with her long history of knocking sutures, he shoots back, "You're stitching. You're just one step closer to knitting your grandma's sweater." Cristina: "Well, at least mine's medical." Alex gets the best last word he can, telling her, "You're knitting, I pull pylons off people." She gives a priceless snit face as he walks off, slightly redeemed by her misery.

Sydney is in the clinic, and her attitude has gone from cocky and chirpy to completely overwhelmed and slightly less chirpy. She's offering orange juice to the waiting families, including one little boy whose extra -- I mean caretaker -- looks on and overacts her way through her small screen debut, nodding at the child unsuccessfully to get him to eat. She keeps repeating to everyone that they should be hearing something soon.

Burly Friend #1 is still holding his friend's hand, as Burly Friend #3 describes how he saved at least a dozen people before he was pinned. They're readying his halo, and Izzie is starting to tire of all of it. BF #1 starts talking about his five children, and Izzie snaps, "Okay, I'm committed to the project, I don't need to hear about the kids." The poor pinned guy himself finally calls off his friend, telling him to leave her alone, and he grudgingly apologizes and tries to force some sincerity into his voice while telling her she's doing a great job. Burly Friend #2 returns and asks how he's doing, and with fake gusto they say he's great. Izzie blows up and screams that he's not, demanding to know why he didn't return with Search and Rescue. It turns out they're completely overloaded and will come when they can, which is about the worst news for this poor pinned hero. I have to wonder at this point why his three huge manly friends aren't at least making an effort to lift up the car and get it off of him, but they seem to be better suited to badgering the only person they found to help their buddy and doing nothing actually useful whatsoever other than making a horrible situation more stressful. Their friend does the heroic thing and tells them to leave him, and proceeds to pass out, inciting panic among his buddies.

Music begins to play: "Make This Go On Forever" by Snow Patrol. It fits absolutely perfectly, you should check it out if you can, and I'll fit in a couple of lyrics as they fit.

Alex come to Crush's bedside in the hospital, who can now move her head slightly. He tells her that he can't make it to her surgery, and she takes his hand. He tells her that she lived through the accident for some reason and that she better be alive for him after the surgery, which Addison watches from the doorway. Crush nods at him -- I find myself attached to her like I don't always get to extra patients, and I have to thank the makeup artists and just the acting she's done with the desperate look in her eye for that. At the door Addy tells him both her and the baby's blood pressure is stable, but when he asks if she'll be okay, she answers him with the vague answer that they'll do everything they can for her. When he asks if Crush can carry the baby to term, she sends him to the clinic to talk to the families, which I'm going to interpret as a "no." Addy watches him go and sighs, and Crush watches Addy's reaction.

Carly lies on an operating table, still refusing to allow her surgery to start and sure that George will get news of her son. He walks in at that moment, and gives a slight shake of his head to Bailey. Carly asks if he's been found, but the scene is cut before we hear his response and see what decision he thinks is best. I can't tell from the shake if he was conveying that the son was still missing or actually dead, but either way it's not a good situation.

Izzie examines her guy and notes that one of his pupils is blown as he starts to shake violently. His friends scream and beg her to not let him die, demanding that she come up with a solution, as she holds his head and tries not to let him hit it on anything during this seizure. Guys, might I suggest help instead of threats at this time?

Alex finally makes it to the clinic, and when the waiting families see him with the list, he's mobbed. He tries to keep order and begins to read names of the confirmed patients, but the mob gets angry when they realize it's a list they've already seen and demand to know more, like why they can't just go into the ER to try and identify some of the John and Jane Does. Sydney watches him helplessly, the look on her face reflecting his body language.

Meredith is still at the dock, stitching up something on the inside of the man's leg, and when she finishes, she sighs with relief and tells silent Mini Mere that she helped. Big Mere just has to bandage him up and then they can look for Mini's mom. The man begins to shiver, and Meredith takes off her jacket and lays it on top of him as he begins to scream that he can't stand the pain anymore. She reaches for him, pleading for him to stay still, but his arm strikes out and catches her, and there's a shot of her converse shoes as they trip and she falls backward into the freezing water below. Mini Meredith remains silent and emotionless and just stares at the place where Meredith stood a second before.

By Lauren S

Music begins to play: "Make This Go On Forever" by Snow Patrol. It fits absolutely perfectly, you should check it out if you can, and I'll fit in a couple of lyrics as they fit.

By Lauren S

I don't know where to look, my words just break and bounce.

Mini Mere turns silently and walks back towards the other rescue workers. The man in the suit seems to pass out, laying amongst his bloody bandages and with Meredith's jacket still across his chest. There's one final shot to the black water below.

Please just save me from this darkness.
Please just save me from this darkness.

The lack of any wrap-up voiceover is more effective than any "to be continued... " slide.